Israel Impressions

In the late 1970s, I spent a year in Israel, six months of which were in Haifa in an absorption center for new immigrants. Israel itself, then barely 30 years old, was still a rough-hewn country ; I was overwhelmed by its complexities, and my fears of never being able to fit into a very different culture sent me back to the U.S. Except for a brief trip in 1985, I didn’t visit the country again until October 2013. On this trip, I found a modern, vibrant country that still retained some of the characteristics that I remembered from when I was a young man living there. I was fascinated by the diversity of people and cultures that make up modern Israel; everywhere I turned, there was something that arrested my attention and called out to be photographed. Working in the streets, marketplaces and homes with my quiet, discreet Leica camera and black and white film, I photographed in a fluid, fast-moving reportorial style, attempting to capture slices of everyday life. I plan on returning to Israel in the fall of 2014 to expand on this initial work, to venture beyond Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the Golan, where I went on this too-brief visit.